British woman seized by Taliban may be traded for Pakistani

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12 April 2012

A British woman aid worker taken hostage by the Taliban may be used as a pawn in demands for the release of a Pakistani woman jailed in America.

The unnamed Briton, who is believed to be Scottish and in her thirties, was abducted yesterday with three Afghans in the dangerous Kunar province in the north-east of the country.

An urgent search was under way for her today as it was reported in Afghanistan that she could be used as a bartering tool in demands for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was last week sentenced to 86 years for opening fire on US soldiers and FBI agents during an interrogation.

The Siddiqui case sparked protests on the streets of Pakistan and had seen the Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appeal publicly to the US for her to be repatriated or released.

An Afghan press agency with close ties to the Taliban said one of its commanders, Mohammad Osman, was demanding Dr Siddiqui's release in exchange for handing over the British woman.

She was working for American consultants based in Washington DC, Development Alternatives Inc, and was travelling in a convoy of two vehicles when insurgents attacked. The company, which also has a London office, works on projects in Afghanistan for the US Agency for International Development.

Osman told the Afghan Islamic press: "We are lucky that we abducted this British woman soon after the ruthless ruling by an American court on Aafia Siddiqui. We will demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui in exchange for her."

Police fought a gun battle with the kidnappers near the attack site before the assailants fled, Kunar police chief Khalilullah Zaiyi said. The woman's family and the Foreign Office have asked for her not to be named.

It is unclear why the team was travelling in such a hostile area of Afghanistan and it is likely that the Taliban only realised afterwards that they had "struck lucky" by seizing a Briton, rather than deliberately targeting her.

Tim Waite, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Kabul, said officials were working closely with all relevant local authorities and said the worker's family had been contacted.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm a British national has been abducted in Afghanistan. We are working closely with all the relevant local authorities. We are also in touch with the family and are providing consular assistance."

Dr Siddiqui, 38, is a US-trained neuroscientist who was said by her defence to have been suffering mental illness as a result of being held captive by Nato forces for up to five years.

Her trial in New York in February heard that as she was about to be interrogated she grabbed an assault rifle and opened fire, shouting "death to Americans". The Americans were unhurt but Dr Siddiqui was shot in the stomach.

Last month, British aid worker Dr Karen Woo was shot dead with nine colleagues in Afghanistan. They were returning from delivering medical supplies to poor Afghans in remote mountain communities.

In July an attack on DAI offices in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, resulted in a British private security guard being killed. Shaun Sexton, a 29-year-old former member of the Parachute Regiment, worked for DAI's security sub-contractor, Edinburgh International.

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